Evidence repeatedly shows that turning around a sales team starts with
turning around the sales manager. Sales managers are uniquely positioned to
influence and empower sales reps to greater levels of success, but sales
managers sometimes become so busy and distracted that they neglect their own
professional development as they get caught up trying to survive the latest
fire drill. It only takes insight into three key areas to dramatically increase
the positive impact the sales manager can make on the whole sales team: Alignment, Motivation, and Performance.

As we continue to work with successful sales organizations all around the
world, we have discovered that highly effective sales managers have a set of
skills and characteristics in common that set them above all the rest, and
which enable them to help their teams to achieve results that are also way
above average. These characteristics are defined in the topics below:

1. Too many sales teams are over-managed and under-led, which is to
say that many sales managers rely too much on metrics and deadlines to drive
performance. Highly effective sales managers find numerous ways to come
alongside team members to motivate and reward them in a social format that
brings out the best in them in a way that inspires everyone.

2. Culture eats strategy for breakfast. This is just a way of saying
that highly effective sales managers don’t rely on theoretical or arbitrary
programs to drive sales team performance. Yes, every team should have a sales
process and set goals and measure pipeline, but it works best to align those
organizational goals to a social network.
Leveraging social goals gives sales individuals targets that are
practical, comfortable, and therefore more natural. Of course, behavior that feels more natural will always work
better and longer than activities that don’t.

3. Building the team; finding and hiring talent. Effective sales
managers are committed to hiring the best talent available. If you want the
best, hire the best, and save loads of time and money on training while
protecting yourself from failure six months down the road. It costs more up
front, but it definitely pays off over time. Look for individuals with social goals that are already more
aligned with your organizational goals.

4. Cadence and Consistency: Set and manage the heartbeat of the team.
A sales team thrives when all the components of the sales and management
process follow regular standards and schedules. If sales managers have the
tools, real time tracking and instantaneous feedback are by far the best methods. When sales reps don’t feel a need to stop
and check in or work against intermittent review “events,” they can give more
energy to selling and immediately incorporate managers’ instant feedback with
deals in motion.

5. Key Performance Indicators: The glue of your communication strategy.
An integral part of a consistent winning cadence is the tone and the topics of
your communications with your sales team. Nothing is more important to sales
makers than knowing what is expected of them and when it is expected. Effective
sales managers keep their communication clear and their expectations well
defined, so that team members know what to aim for, and understand what will
happen if they hit it (or not).

6. Manage the Forward Pipeline: The difference between pipeline and
forecasting. Most sales managers understand the necessity of communicating
regularly with team members about pipeline and forecasting. However, highly
effective sales managers understand there is a difference between the two.
Forecasting is focused on late stage deals. It does little to help with future
quarters. Pipeline is focused on the future development of sales, which
ultimately impacts later forecasts. Most managers don’t differentiate or
understand the difference between the two. Keep this in mind when aligning new goals. When coaching for performance, help
some reps better understand your coaching by pointing out the respective impact
on pipeline or forecasting.

7. Process: Don’t over engineer it, but don’t ignore it. Every sales
team works within a standardized process which defines how to approach,
qualify, work with and close the customer. This is a good thing. However,
highly effective sales managers know it is possible to have too much of a good
thing. Highly regimented, complex sales processes can confuse a sales rep and tie
their hands. So, an effective
sales manager will use all the tech and tools available to track performance in
real time. Up-to-the-minute
tracking lets managers make up-to-the-minute adjustments, giving their teams
“guided flexibility” that is optimal in modern dynamic sales environments.

8. Coaching: In the day – in the moment. Coaching is the
responsibility most neglected by sales managers, because it requires them to
borrow time from their already busy day. Highly effective sales managers
realize that placing a high priority on coaching will build confidence and
drive production for their team better and faster than any other single
practice. Therefore, they take advantage of every opportunity, scheduled or
unscheduled, to provide feedback that will make their sales reps Perform better

9. Herding cats: Dealing with the mavericks and high performers. It
takes a special kind of person to thrive as a sales professional. The highly
competitive profile of a successful sales rep can make them a challenge to work
with and lead. Effective sales managers know how to motivate and reward this
unique breed of cat, to maximize performance and minimize conflict, thus taking
a “good” sales professional making them “great.” Shrewd managers also leverage social networking, using the
success of high performers to motivate others, turning great individual
performers into great performing teams.

10. Leading Indicators: Worrisome patterns of behavior. Effective
sales managers are always thinking ahead; they can recognize what small trends
indicate before they become big problems. By noticing small changes in sales
rep performance in what otherwise might look like still “reasonably” good
numbers, the sales manager can be proactive by coaching reps as they perform. In
doing so, the manager helps prevent weaker performances from becoming anchored
as bad habits that sap overall yearly productivity and sales.

11. Protect their time: You can’t sell if you aren’t spending time with
customers. Highly effective sales managers practice good time management
habits, and they enable their sales teams to make the most of their time by
eliminating demands on their time that don’t directly help drive revenue. With clearly aligned goals, all
activities can be quickly evaluated.
activities that don’t support these goals can be eliminated or updated
to bring them into alignment.

12. Celebrate: Winning is fun. Celebrate it! This ought to be
self-explanatory, but some sales managers wait too long and then don’t
celebrate enough. Effective sales managers understand that the best way to
dispel some of the pressure is to reward wins – even small ones – as often as
possible and use it as an opportunity to give everyone a little boost. A little
celebration creates motivation and that goes a long way.

As we arrive at the 30th anniversary of the Miracle on Ice when the young,
talented, and inexperienced US Olympic Men’s Hockey Team beat the vaunted team
from the USSR and went on to win the gold medal against all odds, every team member
will tell you that it wasn’t their talent that made them
winners, it was the highly effective strategies of their coach, Herb Brooks. He
knew how to help his team to ignore the odds and do the work that would
accomplish the impossible. That is what good coaches do. Highly effective sales
managers do it too, except they do it every day, 24/7/365.

To learn more about running a successful sales organization, download the free ebook:

Comments

Evidence repeatedly shows that turning around a sales team starts with
turning around the sales manager. Sales managers are uniquely positioned to
influence and empower sales reps to greater levels of success, but sales
managers sometimes become so busy and distracted that they neglect their own
professional development as they get caught up trying to survive the latest
fire drill. It only takes insight into three key areas to dramatically increase
the positive impact the sales manager can make on the whole sales team: Alignment, Motivation, and Performance.

As we continue to work with successful sales organizations all around the
world, we have discovered that highly effective sales managers have a set of
skills and characteristics in common that set them above all the rest, and
which enable them to help their teams to achieve results that are also way
above average. These characteristics are defined in the topics below:

1. Too many sales teams are over-managed and under-led, which is to
say that many sales managers rely too much on metrics and deadlines to drive
performance. Highly effective sales managers find numerous ways to come
alongside team members to motivate and reward them in a social format that
brings out the best in them in a way that inspires everyone.

2. Culture eats strategy for breakfast. This is just a way of saying
that highly effective sales managers don’t rely on theoretical or arbitrary
programs to drive sales team performance. Yes, every team should have a sales
process and set goals and measure pipeline, but it works best to align those
organizational goals to a social network.
Leveraging social goals gives sales individuals targets that are
practical, comfortable, and therefore more natural. Of course, behavior that feels more natural will always work
better and longer than activities that don’t.

3. Building the team; finding and hiring talent. Effective sales
managers are committed to hiring the best talent available. If you want the
best, hire the best, and save loads of time and money on training while
protecting yourself from failure six months down the road. It costs more up
front, but it definitely pays off over time. Look for individuals with social goals that are already more
aligned with your organizational goals.

4. Cadence and Consistency: Set and manage the heartbeat of the team.
A sales team thrives when all the components of the sales and management
process follow regular standards and schedules. If sales managers have the
tools, real time tracking and instantaneous feedback are by far the best methods. When sales reps don’t feel a need to stop
and check in or work against intermittent review “events,” they can give more
energy to selling and immediately incorporate managers’ instant feedback with
deals in motion.

5. Key Performance Indicators: The glue of your communication strategy.
An integral part of a consistent winning cadence is the tone and the topics of
your communications with your sales team. Nothing is more important to sales
makers than knowing what is expected of them and when it is expected. Effective
sales managers keep their communication clear and their expectations well
defined, so that team members know what to aim for, and understand what will
happen if they hit it (or not).

6. Manage the Forward Pipeline: The difference between pipeline and
forecasting. Most sales managers understand the necessity of communicating
regularly with team members about pipeline and forecasting. However, highly
effective sales managers understand there is a difference between the two.
Forecasting is focused on late stage deals. It does little to help with future
quarters. Pipeline is focused on the future development of sales, which
ultimately impacts later forecasts. Most managers don’t differentiate or
understand the difference between the two. Keep this in mind when aligning new goals. When coaching for performance, help
some reps better understand your coaching by pointing out the respective impact
on pipeline or forecasting.

7. Process: Don’t over engineer it, but don’t ignore it. Every sales
team works within a standardized process which defines how to approach,
qualify, work with and close the customer. This is a good thing. However,
highly effective sales managers know it is possible to have too much of a good
thing. Highly regimented, complex sales processes can confuse a sales rep and tie
their hands. So, an effective
sales manager will use all the tech and tools available to track performance in
real time. Up-to-the-minute
tracking lets managers make up-to-the-minute adjustments, giving their teams
“guided flexibility” that is optimal in modern dynamic sales environments.

8. Coaching: In the day – in the moment. Coaching is the
responsibility most neglected by sales managers, because it requires them to
borrow time from their already busy day. Highly effective sales managers
realize that placing a high priority on coaching will build confidence and
drive production for their team better and faster than any other single
practice. Therefore, they take advantage of every opportunity, scheduled or
unscheduled, to provide feedback that will make their sales reps Perform better

9. Herding cats: Dealing with the mavericks and high performers. It
takes a special kind of person to thrive as a sales professional. The highly
competitive profile of a successful sales rep can make them a challenge to work
with and lead. Effective sales managers know how to motivate and reward this
unique breed of cat, to maximize performance and minimize conflict, thus taking
a “good” sales professional making them “great.” Shrewd managers also leverage social networking, using the
success of high performers to motivate others, turning great individual
performers into great performing teams.

10. Leading Indicators: Worrisome patterns of behavior. Effective
sales managers are always thinking ahead; they can recognize what small trends
indicate before they become big problems. By noticing small changes in sales
rep performance in what otherwise might look like still “reasonably” good
numbers, the sales manager can be proactive by coaching reps as they perform. In
doing so, the manager helps prevent weaker performances from becoming anchored
as bad habits that sap overall yearly productivity and sales.

11. Protect their time: You can’t sell if you aren’t spending time with
customers. Highly effective sales managers practice good time management
habits, and they enable their sales teams to make the most of their time by
eliminating demands on their time that don’t directly help drive revenue. With clearly aligned goals, all
activities can be quickly evaluated.
activities that don’t support these goals can be eliminated or updated
to bring them into alignment.

12. Celebrate: Winning is fun. Celebrate it! This ought to be
self-explanatory, but some sales managers wait too long and then don’t
celebrate enough. Effective sales managers understand that the best way to
dispel some of the pressure is to reward wins – even small ones – as often as
possible and use it as an opportunity to give everyone a little boost. A little
celebration creates motivation and that goes a long way.

As we arrive at the 30th anniversary of the Miracle on Ice when the young,
talented, and inexperienced US Olympic Men’s Hockey Team beat the vaunted team
from the USSR and went on to win the gold medal against all odds, every team member
will tell you that it wasn’t their talent that made them
winners, it was the highly effective strategies of their coach, Herb Brooks. He
knew how to help his team to ignore the odds and do the work that would
accomplish the impossible. That is what good coaches do. Highly effective sales
managers do it too, except they do it every day, 24/7/365.

To learn more about running a successful sales organization, download the free ebook: